Masterpiece
by Magnus Parvus
Summary: Chancellor Palpatine, an artist of the Force tries to teach young Anakin a mastery of art. Fits the format of the 400 panel Dark Horse children's comics.


Obi-Wan stood in the seedy bar. Various alien patrons were milling about in front of the bar. The bartender sneered at Obi-Wan as he cleaned a glass.

Obi-Wan sidled up to the bartender. "I heard I could find someone here, someone by the name of Backalley."

"Backalley eh, you ain't gonna find 'em in 'ere."

"Backalley's thataway." The bartender pointed out back.

Obi-Wan stepped into a dirty back alley. "In the back alley… How quaint."

A shady character approached Obi-Wan. "So, I heard you have a problem?"

"And I've heard you're a man who can solve my problem."

Backalley smiled. "No problem, no problem at all, as long as you got the credits…"

The shady character clenched a toothpick in his mouth "So whatdoya need?"

"A direct rout to the Finm system."

Backalley's eyes widened. "Now that is an item, and so it's gonna cost you. 200 000 credits. Up front."

"200 000 credits are you out of your mind?" Obi-Wan glared at him.

"Now it's 300 000."

"What?" Obi-Wan was annoyed and astonished.

"Keep complaining and the price goes up again."

Obi won looked at him blankly.

"You should be more discreet Jedi. "

"How…"

"Did I know? You are far too clean to be among the normal smuggler riff raff. That I noticed the bulge on your hip where I think you have the saber hidden; I don't figure it for a blaster."

Obi won steered menacingly at the shady character.

"Nobody around here conceals their weapon; if you're packing heat you want to advertise it. Keeps people from getting ideas about taking you down." Backalley smirked.

"To put it bluntly I'm taking you to the cleaners because I know you're a big shot, and that the Republic's war coffers are very deep."

"And you Jedi ain't really into this material possessions thing. You have to pay whatever I ask." Backalley sneered mockingly at Obi-Wan. "I mean, what choice do you have, there's a war on and people's lives are on the line."

The shady character smiled menacingly. "So tell me Jedi, what do you think a life is worth?"

Anakin threw his hands in the air exasperated. "I can't believe you let him take us for that much."

"What was I supposed to do Anakin torture him for the information?" Obi-Wan exclaimed.

"Our reaching Finm quickly is of the utmost urgency, the separatists have blocked most of the hyperspace routes out of this sector. Without a shortcut, we'd have to go the long way round."

"By taking this smugglers hyperspace route we can knock 5 days off our travel time." Obi-Wan watched through the binoculars as Back-Alley approached them.

"There he is…"

"Ah there you are, my best customers. Off to another battle I suppose."

Backalley patted down his expensive suit and studied the large rings on his fingers. "God I love this war my profits are through the roof, I just hope it lasts a bit longer."

"It won't if I have anything to say about it." Anakin came up to him and stared him down. "The sooner war profiteers like you are put out of business the better."

"Now, now my boy, I'm just playing my part in the big scheme of things. You can't deny I'm offering you exceptional service. This little map is worth every penny."

He held up a small holo projector. "The funds in the amount of 300 000 republic credits has been deposited into your account Mr. Baccalli."

Backalley held out the data disk to Anakin.

"How can we trust that these coordinates are good?" Ahsoka looked at him suspiciously.

"How can I trust you to not try and double-cross me, freeze my accounts?" Backalley retorted.

Ahsoka held her hands to her hips and leaned ahead forcefully. "Because we're Jedi we don't do that."

"A Jedi, oh my, a Jedi; I'm sorry, how can you not trust a Jedi? That Dooku character used to be a Jedi didn't he, you must trust the heck out of him."

"Jedi is just a title like doctor or senator. A person's title or the position in society they hold is not necessarily related to the person's disposition or character." The shady character leaned back casually. "Jedi does not always mean trustworthy…

He walked away down the ramp waving behind him. "Remember that little girl."

"Oh the nerve of that guy." Ahsoka looked at him angrily as he walked away.

"Well he did give us what we require. I say we get underway."

Backalley picked up a comlink as he watched the ship take off into space. "Good news, they bought it hook, line and sinker."

Anakin came back to the small compartment where the others were seated around a table. "We should be coming up at the first jump point soon, from there it'll be a simple 5 minute wait for the computers to recalibrate."

"Oh! Guess what I found in the old data logs I was going through…" Anakin held up a disk.

He slipped it into the holo-projector the glowing image of Qui-Gon Jinn appeared.

"Hey it's Qui-Gon." Obi-Wan smiled.

"Is that my great grand master?" Ahsoka asked.

"Great grand master?" Anakin looked at her confused.

"Yeah, you know like your grand master's master or grandfather's father…"

"Quiet." Obi won held a finger to his lips.

Qui-Gon Jinn's log: "When we went inadvertently off course this afternoon we made a rather fortunate discovery, a boy by the name of Anakin Skywalker. I believe it his destiny to be one of the greatest and most powerful Jedi of all time. Strange that it was from such misfortune, a deviation from our plan that such a momentous event could occur."

"Strange too that the moment we landed on Tattooine I felt the hand of destiny at work, the force guiding me to find this boy."

"From such an unfortunate occurrence to occur such a fortune was quite fortunate."

"Huh that's him?" Ahsoka looked crookedly at the holo image. "Somehow with the way you guys talk about him I thought he'd be, I dunno, bigger."

"Bigger, are you kidding look at him, he's huge."

She looked back at Anakin and Obi-Wan as they gazed admiringly at the hologram.

"Hmm, seems some figures figure bigger in some people's lives."

Large fleets of separatist military craft were arrayed together in space. "A transmission for you from high command Admiral."

A blue hologram popped up before the uniformed officer. "Count Dooku, it is good to hear from you."

"What is the problem Admiral, why have you repeatedly requested to speak with me? Is the simple task I've assigned you too complicated? Perhaps I should put someone more capable in charge of the operations."

"No, no sir. It's just that we've been orbiting this worthless planet for two weeks now and there hasn't been a peep of anyone trying to use the hyperspace bypass lane that cuts through here. I don't think Skywalker is coming."

"Rest assured, Skywalker will come I have foreseen it."

"And that crazy Dr. that you assigned to survey the planet, he's converted military tanks for non military applications. Every spare man I have has been appropriated by him for this project."

"Our defensive capacity is greatly lowered. If attacked now we'd be sitting ducks."

"Admiral you are in charge of an entire fleet, are you seriously telling me that you don't think you can take down a single small personal craft?"

"No sir it's just…"

"Good day Admiral . If you bother me again I'll not only remove you as head of your army, but also remove your head and arms."

The Admiral put his hand up to his neck and gulped.

An alarm started to beep. Anakin leaped up. "Get ready, we're coming out of hyperspace."

They were strapped in their seat as the haze of stars in front of them solidified.

Then they gazed in terror and surprise. A large fleet of separatist craft was arrayed around them, all of them firing weapons in their direction.

"I think we were set up." Obi-Wan manned the top turret controls.

"Now I'm upset." Obi-Wan fired at a droid fighter that came in range.

An instant later the fighter exploded in a burst of smoke and fire.

Obi-Wan called from behind as Anakin wrestled with the ships controls. "Anakin fly low into that planet's atmosphere. Do whatever you can to evade these things."

"Forget it. These guys don't know who the heck there dealing with." Anakin flew close to one of the capital ships. "Let's see how many of them we can take with us."

"Yeah, let's take it to them." Ahsoka used a side gun top fire on the droids.

The fighter pursuing Anakin's ship fired at him. The shots missed and struck the capital ship behind him instead.

"Anakin don't be foolish, even you can't take on an entire battle fleet."

"Just watch me."

Anakin hit the thrusters and spun heading strait toward a cannon firing on them. The cannon spun around to track the Anakin flying low against a corner of the ship.

The cannon fired on Anakin hitting a glassed in viewing platform jutting out behind him. Several droids inside the platform stared in terror as the saw the cannon continuing to fire at them.

One of the blasts struck Anakin's ship.

The ship swirled away. "Anakin this is reckless."

Obi-Wan turned to stare intently at Ahsoka. "And irresponsible, especially when you have people you're responsible for. You must exercise self control."

Anakin looked to Ahsoka, his Togruta Padawan.

"What?" Ahsoka gave them a strange look.

"…And I must exercise the controls myself." Anakin pressed himself into the center consol pushing Ahsoka away from and taking over her flight controls. "Move, I'm taking her down into the atmosphere."

She was about to say something but he gave he a cold stare.

She looked downward avoiding his gaze.

Anakin grasped the flight controls tightly. "Hold tight it's gonna get hot."

The ship careened into the atmosphere.

"I've lost thruster power, all I can do is try and level this thing out, try and slow us down."

"Anakin the temperatures rising too steeply." The floor underneath them started to give off a reddish glow.

"It's not going to hold out Anakin. The hull will burn up before we get into the atmosphere." Sweat beaded down Obi-Wan's face.

"The hell it will." Anakin thrust the nose of the craft downward, plunging the craft into a dive.

"What are you doing Anakin? You're cutting into the atmosphere. We're going down faster."

"True but I'm also cutting down on the amount of surface area creating friction and therefore heat.

The ship speed downward toward the ground. "We're in the atmosphere, level it out level it out Anakin! Level it out!"

The nose of the ship pulled up and it approached the ground levelly.

"Forget it Anakin there's no way we can land at this speed, the ship will be torn apart."

Anakin clenched his teeth. "No it won't, I won't let it."

A bubble of force energy spread out to protect the ship as it came in. Huge swatches of earth flew into the air as the craft bulldozed its way into the ground; a large trench was created behind them.

Anakin shock his head. "Is everyone ok?"

Ahsoka moved a piece of metal off of her. "Ow, just peachy." Bubbles clouded her head.

"Did I see right? Obi-wan shook his head. "Did you project a force bubble around the ship that was able to survive a collision at near terminal velocity?"

"Yeah so?" Anakin shrugged.

Obi-Wan whistled. "You really are getting powerful."

A dark cloud formed on the horizon. "Um, is that a storm heading for us?" Ahsoka asked.

A herd of cow like creatures plowed toward them galloping quickly, turning up a cloud of dust in their wake.

"More, like a herd storming toward us." Obi-Wan winced.

"Get ready."

The three of them branded their light sabers. They jumped high into the air letting the herd stampede beneath them.

Anakin leapt to on top of one of them. He used his foot to push off the cow and into the air only to hop off another cow in front of him with the other foot.

The three of them landed on the ground in unison, the heard storming off behind them.

They looked up startled. They saw they were surrounded by humanoid creatures seated on the backs of horse like creatures. They looked like Indians wearing ornaments of various animal creatures. The had no weapons save for the shaped spears they held in their hands.

The chief among them wore a headpiece plumed with many feathers. He bowed to the Jedi as he spoke. "I prayed to you and now you have come. Bless you oh great ones, we submit to your will."

He got down off his horse, as did the rest of his warriors. They all bowed down on the ground before them.

"Let me guess they think we're some kind of gods?" Anakin smiled amused.

Obi-won threw his hands in the air. "Why it is this happens on every primitive planet we come across?"

Obi-Wan spoke back to chief in pictograph language. "We are not gods but men. We need to get off this planet; we need to go back out there." He pointed to the sky.

"We understand the gods wish to return to their home in the heavens, but I prayed for you to help us, to rid us of the great sickness and the thunder diggers that bring it."

"Great sickness?"

The chief hopped on his horse and motioned for them to follow. "Come, I will show you."

The three Jedi rode doubles with the warriors as they approached a village of dilapidated teepees.

"The sickness struck here mere three moons ago."

They stood in a graveyard; a slew of new burial mounds filled it.

Ahsoka looked inside one of the teepees. It was empty but untidy, primitive plates and cups lay scattered about but most noticeable of all was the small primitive doll that lay on the ground.

Ahsoka picked it up in her hand. A tear came to her eye as she stared at it.

Obi-Wan read a electronic device he held in his hand. The moon here is visible every three days.

"So it took nine days for this disease to wipe out an entire village. This is bad."

Obi-Wan pointed. "There's one that didn't get buried."

Obi-Wan went over to where a dead body lay on the ground. a shovel was held in it's hands. "Looks like he was the last one; There wasn't anybody left to dig his grave."

"What are you doing?" Anakin asked as Obi-Wan took a small hypodermic needle out of his belt.

"Doing what needs to be done."

Anakin grabbed the primitive wooden shovel from the dead mans hands and started to dig. "Then, so will I."

The sun was setting by the time the group on horseback approached the village. The teepees spat smoke from their roofs.

Papa! A young girl ran up to the chief. She hugged him tightly. "You're back." She looked to the Jedi that stood before her.

"The gods have answered our prayers, they are here to help us in our time of great need."

One of the warriors eyes wided with terror as he ran out of a teepee. "The great sickness! It is here! My life-mate… she…"

"Splinter Toe it will be ok; the gods are here to help us."

"For the last time were not gods!" Obi-Wan said angrily.

Pleading the girl looked up at Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan frowned. "Alright I'll go and see what I can do for her."

Obi-Wan stood over the woman as she lay in the bed. He placed a hand on her forehead. "Elevated temperature, weakened pulse, slowed neural response. It's an infection of some sort but I can't tell if it's biological or chemical. To cure her we've got to find out what's killing her."

He drew more blood from her.

Some blood dropped to the ground and made a small red puddle.

Before…

Paint dropped from the brush and made a small red area.

"Ah, Anakin my dear boy, how pleasant to see you. Well what do you think?"

Palpatine added a few touches of the brush to the canvas.

"It's great sir, I didn't know you painted."

"Oh my dear boy, it's one of favorite hobbies. Aside from the aesthetic pleasure it provides it's an excellent exercise in discipline and control."

"Discipline and control I know enough about that, it seems like every exercise we have in the Jedi Order requires discipline and control."

"No my dear boy you misunderstand me I don't mean discipline and control of oneself. I don't even mean like in saber fighting where you strive to master the many disciplines in order to control the movement of the blade, or in my case the brush." The chancellor flurried his brush.

"No in painting you must discipline the world to your will. You project onto the canvas an image of the world as you will it to be. You control every aspect of your creation. You create a reality. Become a god as it were."

"Hmm, interesting, perhaps I should give it a try."

"Seeing as how you Jedi eschew material possessions of your own I would be only too willing the let you use my brushes and art supplies whenever you like."

The little girl held up her hand. "Hi, my name's Kot."

Ahsoka looked her astonished.

"Did I not say it right? I'm sorry."

"You…you speak basic?"

"Your tongue? I learned it from see-seven. The shiny head."

"Shineyhead? A droid? Where did it come from?"

"The outsiders who brought the thunder diggers brought it many moons ago now."

"Show me." Ahsoka followed her to the teepee where she dug the head out of a bag.

"I really wish you wouldn't do that I can't see a thing in that bag." The protocol droids head announced.

"Sorry father said to put you away, he was tired of your squawking."

Squawking? Squawking? That ignoramus of a humanoid wouldn't know intelligent conversation if…"

C7 turned to Ahsoka. "Oh my, what do we have here? Finally someone's come to rescue me from this barbaric, uncivilized…"

"Shut up droid!" Ahsoka snapped.

"My, my we have a thing or two learn about manners young miss. There are ways of asking for someone to be quiet without being rude."

"Would you please be quiet?"

"Now that's much better, see what a politeness can do, all you and to do was ask nicely and you see that I'm more then willing to cease my prattling and give you my undivided attention."

"Good because-"

"As a matter of fact, I'm quite distressed at the lowered standard of discourse that is prevalent with today's youth. Is there no discipline? Is there no respect for authority? Is there…? Hey! What are you-"

She stuffed the droids head back into the bag.

"Can you show me where you got this?"

"Sure c'mon."

They approached a group of horses. "It would be quicker to ride there."

"By the way my name is Ahsoka."

"Really Ahsoka? That's so neat. That's whites horse's over there named Ahwoka, that's almost the same."

She stared at the white horse in wonder. "Wow he's beautiful."

"My mother used to ride him."

She patted the horse on the head. "Used to? Did he get sold?"

"Sold? I do not understand? What you mean?"

"I mean, who owns him?"

"He owns his own self, only. "

"I see. Can I ride him?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Because your mother wouldn't want me to?"

"My mother can not care one way or the other, it's just that he won't let anyone ride him since my mother died."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's ok, It happened long ago now."

She looked at the horse serenely. "Hear that, it happened a long time ago, and you have a long time still to live."

"You ready?" She turned to the girl.

She hopped up onto the horse in a quick movement.

She reached forward and patted the horse on the side of the head. "That's it baby, let's go."

She kicked her heels into the beast and it galloped forward.

Sitting atop her horse Kot watched in awe as the pair of them leaped away.

Anakin, Ahsoka and Kot galloped to the edge of a wooded area, then dismounted and climbed up a mound.

On the other side was an amazing scene. The ground was all dug up. Every bit of vegetation was gone. All that was left in its wake was what seemed to be tilled soil.

Plowing through it was a large tank it's treads converted to rounded digging buckets. They filled the whole valley as far as the eye could see.

"What are they doing on our world?"

"Yeah and what in the world are they doing?"

Anakin gathered some soil samples in a vial. "C'mon let's get a looksie at what they're looking for."

They ran toward one of the buildings.

Two robots stood on either side of the doors.

Anakin pushed the robots aside crumpling their bodies.

They entered the room.

"Dare I say your mission was a success?"

"I'll let you be the judge." Anakin handed Obi-Wan a large package.

Obi-Wan looked inside. "A spectral-10 cosythisizer? I dare say it's a success."

"They're using T4 signal boosters to communicate with the command ship through the soupy atmosphere. They wouldn't do that if they had a clear transmission route."

"Then there's only one way we're going to able to contact the Republic."

"These tools will help the gods so that the gods can help the us?"

"For the last time we're not gods."

"What is your problem Obi-Wan?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are really so humble that you refuse to let someone give homage to you?"

"I don't like where you're going with this Anakin."

"Don't you get it it's a simple matter of military practicality. We are going to have to hit that base stationed down there, and I don't notice any clones to back us up around here, do you?"

"Ahsoka!"

Yes master?

"Got a special mission for you, you're gonna go out and drum us up an army."

"What? Who am I that people would volunteer to fight for me?"

"A god, of course."

"Now wait just a minute Anakin, we can't go around telling people we're gods, were not gods."

"Are you serious? If we don't help these people. If they don't stand up and fight now every living creature on this planet will die. We cradle the lives of the entire world in our arms; the truth is we are gods to these people."

Obi-Wan bowed his head and turned away. "It's still a lie."

"Ahsoka you heard what I said, time to turn on the charm."

Ahsoka galloped away.

Obi-Wan refused to face Anakin.

"Obi-Wan this afternoon I was rather… fortunate."

Obi won raised an eyebrow.

Kot stepped into the light. "This is Kot, I think she should be tested."

"All right ready Ahwoka baby let's go." Ahsoka kicked him into a trot.

They galloped over the countryside until they came upon a village of teepees

"All right here goes nothing." She galloped into the center of town. All the villagers stopped to stare at her. She raised the C7 droid's head over her head.

"Tell them I am a messenger of the gods and that I need them to volunteer warriors to fight against the outsiders."

"You? A god? Don't be ridiculous I will do no such thing. Frankly this confirms my suspicion I've harbored for some time now that you Jedi are just too high on yourselves. Honestly a little humility would go a long way in…"

"Shut up and tell them or I'll slice your head off!"

He looked her blankly.

"You know what I mean."

He addressed the crowd speaking in pictograph form.

"There I did it; you didn't have to be rude."

She growled at him.

"Well…" Anakin asked impatiently.

Obi-wan read the results from the machine. "Midi-clorian count is far below normal. She's got absolutely no force ability."

"Yeah, yeah I figured that, get to the intellect ratio, and neural capacity. What are the numbers?"

"You're right she's genius. She's at the triple A scale level. A mere handful of people in the history of the republic have had those kinds of numbers and that kind of potential. "

"Think of it what she might be destined to do, here's a girl who has the possibility of incredibly achievements. She could cure spice addiction, or revolutionize interspatial travel."

"Like Qui-Gon said, our misfortune is our fortune."

"What tipped you off? What clued you in that she was hyper intelligent?"

Before…

She rode alongside the girl. "You learned to speak fluent basic in a week?"

"Yes my father says the gods have already gifted my people when I was born."

"I invented these." She handed over a sleek lean spear with a spiraled feather end piece.

"By the force! A fully aerodynamic throwing spear… This is amazing!" Anakin stared in awe at the spear in his hand.

"Seems you're awfully impressed with a stick." Ahsoka raised an eyebrow.

"This isn't just a stick". Anakin held it up proudly. "This is a technological revolution. The other tribes we passed by were using crude wooden pikes to hunt. They have to walk right up to their quarry and katchow." Anakin jabbed at the air with his light saber.

"These guys, their prey can be 50 units away and still." He threw his light saber into the air; it bit into a tree far away.

Anakin reached up his hand as the light saber swept back to him.

"Still it's only a piece of wood."

"No you're not getting it." Anakin shook his head. "It's not the invention; it's the fact that she had the idea for the invention."

"You're saying she's smart?"

Anakin smirked at her. "Gee you're quick on the uptake."

Anakin walked up to Kot. "Well it looks like I was right; you are a very special little girl."

"So I should go with you into the heavens?"

"That's your choice."

"And my family…"

Anakin looked at the ground sadly. "I'm sorry."

"Oh." She looked at the ground sadly. "I don't feel very good."

"I know…" Anakin bent down on his knee to face her. "It's tough it's probably one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. Trust me I know a little bit about it."

"I feel really bad." She started to cry.

"Hey it's ok." Anakin bent down and hugged her.

Suddenly he drew back startled; he placed a hand on her forehead.

"By the force, you're burning up."

He picked her up in his arms. "Don't worry everything's going to be ok."

He gazed ahead confidently. "I'll make sure of it."

Ahsoka and Ahwoka galloped along tearing a cloud of dust in their wake.

"Nice going baby, you made good time." She patted the horse on the side of the face.

She held her hand on his face and looked down at the horse in alarm. "Oh no...He's feverish."

She leapt off the horse and ran in front of it holding onto the rains. "Don't worry Ahwoka baby, everything's gonna be ok."

Anakin sat by Kot as she lay in a bed. He had a light saber in his hands and was adjusting it with an instrument that looked like a screw drivers.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm lengthening the blade of the light saber."

"Really how?"

"Well light has wave properties."

"A wave, like in the ocean?"

"Kind of, think of it as a repeating pattern…" He sketched a squiggly wavy line into the rock wall with his lightsabre. "You can have a fast repetition. High frequency line…"

He sketched a slow wavy line next to it. "…Or a slow repetition, low frequency line."

"Oh you mean like sound. Fast shaking makes a high sound and slow shaking making a deep sound."

"Yes that it, that's it exactly. All I do is make the wave shake or vibrate slower and…" The blade of the light-sabre stretched across the room.

"Wow!" She looked at the light-sabre.

"Yeah, wow." He looked at her admiringly.

"Are you ready Ahsoka?" Anakin asked.

"I'm ready to take it to them all right." She gave him an intimidating glare with rows upon rows of warriors on horseback lined up behind her.

Anakin held up one of the crude sharpened wooded spears. "Looks like we all have a big stake in this."

"All right let's move out." Anakin kicked his horse off down the trail.

Ahsoka rode her black horse forward when a white horse bumped into the side of her. "Ahwoka stop that! You should be resting."

He let out a loud whiney and again bumped into the black horse knocking Ahsoka off of it.

She stared up at the horse sternly. "I mean it; you're sick, go home."

The horse kneeled forward lowering himself for her to mount him.

She sighed. "Well ok but you better not collapse out from under me you understand?"

She climbed atop his back. "All right baby, let's go buck these guys off the planet."

The army of horse bound warriors descended on the separatist encampment. The lot of them held there long spears before them like lances. The three Jedi used their light sabers to the same effect however their light blades were stretched out far longer.

Ahsoka charged forward brazenly. Ahwoka's nostrils flared and steam seemed to pore from them as they charged at the earth-digger tanks.

She used the long saber blade to slice through them. Taking out the tanks on either side of her.

They slid to a halt. Ahsoka spied a group of uber droids guarding a building in the middle of the encampment she smiled triumphantly. She spoke into her comlink. "Master I think I've found our target."

A group of droids sat around the command consol. A shadowed figure was seated in the command chair.

"Sir we're taking heavy losses. The eastern sector is compromised." One of the droids announced.

"I am zurrounded by imbeziles. zese are primitive barbarians dare attack us? An assault against us zhould be hopeless, yet zey press forvard."

"Bah, do vhatever it takes, vipe zem out."

Suddenly the door to the room flew inward off it's hinges.

.

"It ist ze Jedi. Attack!"

The robot droids started to fire on the three Jedi.

The three of them leapt forward each slicing through several of the battle droids.

"Ha, ha pitivul Jedi do you zink you've von?"

The figure stepped to the light, he had black slicked back hair and wore a black military uniform, a monocle and a thin twirled moustache decorated his face.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

Ahsoka cupped her hand against the side of her mouth and whispered to Anakin. "Um, I think he's supposed to be the bad guy."

"Really?" Obi-Wan raised his eyebrow. "I wonder what gave it away?"

Do not mock me zoon you vill all tremble at the wrath of Dr. Smoozle-moozle-broom-brot.

They looked and him strangely, then keeled over in laughter. "Ha, ha, ha, ha."

"Ztop it! Ztop laughing at my name!" Dr. Smooz clenched his fist and jumped up and down in anger. "It isn't vunny."

"I'm sorry." Ahsoka gigged. "I can't help it."

"I mean it ztop it. Ztop laughing!" He bent down on his knees and pleaded. "I'll do anyzing you vant, just ztop laughing at me."

Ahsoka tried to control herself. "He, he, chortle. Ok, ok, what is it you're doing here exactly?"

"He's mining the soil for the spores for the disease right?" Obi-won confronted him.

"Yes ze earth is covered with it. It ist everyvhere underneath the zurface of the zoil. It's ze weapon zat destroyed all life on zis planet hundreds of thousands of years ago."

"It vorks like zis, microscopic spores are released into ze air. "

A hologram popped up in front of them. It showed a bunch of round spiky balls floating in the air.

"Zese spores attach to living tissue und then release all of zeir micro invectants."

The hologram showed the big spiked ball attached to a blood vessel. The ball was ruptured spilling hundreds of tiny balls flowing from the rip out into the bloodstream.

"Zese little spores are carried to all ze parts of ze body in the bloodstream eating anyzing around zem." The diagram showed the small spores getting bigger by eating into the side of the wall of the blood vessel.

"Zey eat und eat und eat until zey grow into another spore vith millions of invectants to release into another body." The image showed a diseased bloated body spreading it's spores out all around it.

"The thing vas zat once ze spores had killed everyzing on ze planet, zey had nothing left to eat und kind of died off. The vind und erosion covered over all the mutated dead creatures full of ze spores. So that after many hundreds of zousands of years ze spores vere no longer in the atmosphere, allowing new creatures to be able to live on ze planet vithout being invected."

"But now you're stirring up the soil and releasing the spores into the atmosphere again, endangering the entire planets population."

"Wait this room is hermetically sealed. In fact there are air locks throughout this complex. You fear getting this disease and the only reason for that would be…"

"You don't have a cure."

"What?"

"And you intended to use these spores as a weapon? You are mad, don't you see the entire planet was destroyed before; it's bound to backfire on you like it did on the people who created it. Some things are far to dangerous to tamper with."

"No, no there must be way to heal them."

She grabbed Dr. Smooz by the collar and held him aloft. "Tell me…"

"Try me Jedi I'm no veak minded…"

Suddenly his eyes glazed over. "No I'm avraid zere is no cure, but massive regular invusion of bacta therapy zeems to keep it at bay."

"Oh and veel vree to make vun of my name."

"Flight 776 you are cleared to land on platform 10. Nice to have you back Dr. smoozle-mozzle- he, he."

"I'm sorry sir I didn't mean to."

"No go right ahead und laugh at my ridiculously vunny name."

"Excuse me Dr?"

"Vell you heard me go und bust a gut."

"Ok, then no problem Dr. Smozzle-mozzle, he, he, broom-brot, he, he, he, ha, ha. ha." He doubled over laughing.

"Ach! Vhat have you done?

"Never mind that, take us up to the main communication tower."

"You plan to send out a distress call?"

"To what end. The republic's army is stretched too thin as it is, there's no way the republic will sanction diversion of military resources to help us. We should just nab that vehicle in the docking bay with the hyperspace drive; we should be gone before they even notice us."

"And just leave the planet and its weapons to the separatists? Just let the people die?"

"Anakin if we divert resources to help these people we could easily be weakened enough that entire star systems would find themselves in peril."

Anakin's right Obi-Wan, we have to help these people."

"Ahsoka I know it's hard but you must not let your feelings blind you. You must learn control."

"No Obi-Wan you're wrong. Control isn't something to be learned…"

He clenched his black gloved fist before him. "Control is something to be taken."

Palpatine hovered over a large holo map projected atop a large round table. Various uniformed military officers sat around the table as he pointed to a section of the map. "And the sea offensive on Q'werty, why did…"

"Chancellor, there's an urgent message for you from one of the Jedi."

"Jedi? Do they not have better things to do then waste my time? Tell them I'll speak with them later."

"He was rather insistent; he demanded that he speak with you."

"He demanded did he, who is this arrogant…"

"It's Anakin Skywalker."

"Anakin?" Palpatine's eyes widened. "Put him through, the rest of you leave."

The slew of uniformed officers walked out the door as the blue holographic image of Anakin appeared on the table.

"Anakin my dear boy, this is most unusual. Why did you insist on talking to me?"

"Well sir, I've thought a bit about what you said about art, there's a situation here I'd like to control and I was wondering if I might… how should I put it, borrow some of your brushes…"

Palatine sneered. "Good, my boy. I'm very pleased, very pleased indeed."

Anakin sliced through a battle droid. "That's the last of them."

"Get on board that one." He pointed. "The ship with the hyper drive."

"What? Anakin no…" Ahsoka looked disappointed. "I thought we were going to try and help these people not run away."

"Get on board Ahsoka." Anakin glowed at her. "The only thing we have to worry about for the moment is staying alive."

The large shuttle like craft sailed out of the hanger.

"Flight no 657 you are not cleared for takeoff, return to docking bay immediately." The intercom blared.

"Get ready; things are going to get hairy." Anakin smiled.

"Flight 657 reverse course or we will fire on you."

"You can try." Anakin flew the small craft away from the large ship.

Several shots were fired from the large command ship.

"Not this again. We won't last five minutes out here. It's time to make the jump to light speed." Obi won frowned.

The space craft veered about avoiding more laser fire. "Did you hear? We need to make the jump to light speed."

"We're not going to jump to light speed. We're going to destroy this fleet." Anakin fired his guns taking out a laser turret that was firing on them.

"I thought we already had this conversation Anakin."

"If I'm responsible for others, then I have to behave reasonably responsibly?"

"So what do you think you're doing?"

"Anakin fired on another droid ship turning it into a ball of smoke and fire." "Responding."

The space was filled with droid craft of all types firing on the small craft Anakin piloted.

"One of the shots seared the wing."

Ahsoka cried despairingly. "There too many of them. It's hopeless."

Just then the space round them was filled with spirals of light. A host of republic battle cruisers leapt into the space around them. They dwarfed the large separatist fleet.

The republic's ships blazed away at the separatist fleet.

The separatist captain looked up at the display screen in panic. "We're surrounded, man all guns and turrets."

The transmissions officer looked up from the controls he was manning. "We can't sir, half the crew is on the planets surface working with Dr Smooz."

"Oh no we're finished."

"Dammit what I wouldn't give to tell Dooku I told you so."

"I can patch you through to him now if you like."

"On second thought. Open as channel to the republic command ship. Tell them..."

"We surrender. "

Ahsoka patted down Ahwoka. "You feeling better baby?"

"He'll be ok, as well as most everyone else." Anakin smiled.

"I still can't believe that the chancellor pulled out all the stops on this one." Obi-Wan stared in wonder at the sight before him. A large group of clone soldiers were constructing a building together. And in front of them several villagers were lined up waiting their turn to get bacta injections from a clone doctor.

"Full military outposts set up to administer regular bacta injection to the population and protect the planet from any further separatist attempts to mine the spores, it's really not like him."

"The chancellor? No it's not. But I think he'd appreciate the results. Everything seems to be as we want it to be. And then's there's Kot, you never know she might one day find a cure for the disease."

Anakin gazed out to see the clone troopers seeding the ground. Small plants were being planted in the ravaged earth. "Real work of art huh?"

Ahsoka sat atop Ahwoka. "Looks like the world is at peace, Master."

The chancellor dabbed some paint on the portrait. "You Anakin are my real work of art."

Anakin was posed confidently, he wore a dark robe and a black gloved fist was clenched before him.

"You will be my masterpiece."

"Masterpiece" by Magnus Parvus


End file.
